Today's prompt was to write for 40 minutes, but I had seveal interruptions when I started and soon lost rack of how much time I spent writing. In any event, I went to an established character and went into her past. Here is a snippet of that. Tas was the only one not to watch …
The prompt for Story-a-Day today was to write a 100 word story. I don't always follow the prompts, but after yesterdays very long, about-to-get-out-of-control story, the idea of a very short story appealed. Another Day on the Job Ben Chiselsmith navigated his ship into position. He sipped his tea, reviewed the orders. Everything was clear …
The beginning of today's story--Mr. Dimwater's Graveyard School. The bodies arrived before lunch. Fourteen-year-old Sofie Hartmore slammed her book shut and threw her pencil hard across the room. It barely missed Tobin Yu, who had just lifted himself up off the floor. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and ignored the clatter of Sofie’s …
Story-a-Day May has begun! I need to be more thoughtful about what I post since many magazines and journals won't publish anything that's been posted on a blog or other website. Nonetheless, I can post snippets, right? So, I took the start of today's story and made a short vide using a free video-making platform. …
Whenever I took one of those magazine, personality quizzes (pre-internet days), I always ended up in the middle, never too much this way or that. As a kid, I believed being a judge was the most important job in the world--you decided what was fair. You balanced the needs of society and the individual. If …
I've been in something of a reflective mood. Or maybe obsessive. The line between the two wobbles a bit for me. What I've been dwelling on is failure. There's what for me is a common failure--art. For every piece of art I show people, several pieces are in the trash. I experience varying degrees of …
I'm rereading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Have you read it? The first time, I read every footnote too. This time, I'm keeping to the story. I love the book even more the second time around. The rhythm of the words and fullness of the characters amaze me. It both inspires and depresses me. I …
I've been drawing a lot of pictures of women with their eyes closed. Or maybe one eye is open, looking to the right as if something over there needs watching over. Not sure if anything should be read into that. But in other news, I've decided on major rewrites to my current manuscript. Rewriting involves …
I entered a fan fiction contest. Well, it wasn't called a fan fiction writing contest, but it was for fans of Twin Peaks. The fan site Welcome to Twin Peaks hosted. The idea was to write a backstory for a minor character. I didn't make it to the final round, so I'm going to post …
I listen to several podcasts. The other day I checked out Helping Writers become Authors to see if I should add it to my list. In one episode, the podcaster, K.M. Weiland (whose work I am not actually familiar with) talked about books that shaped her as a writer. There's no need to repeat what …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 